Peterson collects five hits in Sky Sox's rout

Shane Peterson was put on the disabled in April to recover from an arm injury. He also was he rehabbed his swing and cleared his mind.

Refreshed after a month out of the lineup, the Brewers outfielder recorded his second career five-hit game Friday night, going 5-for-5 with a walk and two RBIs as Triple-A Colorado Springs pounded Fresno, 17-4, at Chukchansi Park.

"I just had some time to work on my swing a little bit when I was coming back. I had a week or two, working with hitting coaches and being able to mentally focus on what I wanted to do, as opposed to worrying about results," said Peterson, who fell a triple shy of the cycle.

After collecting two hits in his first 19 at-bats, Peterson hit the DL on April 21 with trouble in his left [throwing] arm. Since returning a week ago, the 28-year-old is 15-for-27 (.556) with three homers and seven RBIs.

"You're going to go through multiple slumps. That just happened to be going on in the first 20 or so at-bats," he said. "Mentally, it was probably nice to be able to take some time off, clear my head and get back to the mindset I want to be in."

The Sky Sox batted around in a six-run first as Peterson singled to center.

"It's huge, especially the way we've been struggling as a team, especially when it comes to wins and losses," he said. "So to be able to jump out to an early lead like that settles not just your offense down but your pitchers down as well."

While the rest of the lineup was quiet for the next four innings, Peterson kept clicking. In the third, he sent an 0-1 offering from Grizzlies starter Mike Hauschild (3-6) to deep right-center field for third homer of the season -- all in the last six games. Two innings later, he slapped a single to right for his third hit.

"I had nobody on, I was just basically trying to have a good at-bat, keep things going," he said. "I thought [it was a homer], but you never know, especially to the bigger part of the field. It's something, for me anyways, I try to put my head down and wait 'til it goes over the fence."

Colorado Springs batted around again in a six-run sixth, with Peterson delivering an RBI double to left.

"It's something where you need to keep the pressure on the other team. So doing it once is important, doing it a second time is big," he said. "You never know if the other team is going to put up some runs."

A triple shy of the cycle, Peterson came up in the eighth and doubled to left. With the Sky Sox totaling 20 hits, the Long Beach State product got another chance in the ninth and worked a four-pitch walk. It was the second career five-hit game for Peterson, who went 5-for-5 for Sacramento while in the A's system on Aug. 17, 2013.

"It's always good. Anytime you can put together that many hits in one day, it's going to be a good day," Peterson said. "[So] hopefully, [I'll] keep it going and try to repeat it the next day, which obviously being able to do that again is not likely, but still having the same mindset helps."

Peterson played in a couple Major League games for the A's before being designated for assignment on Dec. 11, 2014. The Cubs claimed the left-handed hitter off waivers on Dec. 19 and the Brewers did the same four days later. He appeared in 93 games for Milwaukee last season and batted .259 with 16 RBIs.

"I just need to keep doing what I'm doing. You can only prepare yourself the way you know how and I'm trying to do that. I'm trying to keep my body physically ready," he said. "The key thing for me when I was on the DL was making sure my legs stayed strong and the rest of my body while getting my elbow back into shape. …

"Hopefully, now that I'm back on the field, I can keep swinging well and get another opportunity back in Milwaukee."

Shortstop Andy Wilkins and third baseman Will Middlebrooks slugged grand slams for the Sky Sox. They came in support of Tyler Cravy (1-1), who allowed two runs -- one earned -- on two hits and three walks with five strikeouts in five innings. Brent Suter gave up two runs on two knocks and a walk with two punchouts in recording a four-inning save.